Timeliness of Information

Why is timeliness of your data is important

Let assume that you have the necessary skills and tools so that your data is accurate. That certainly is definitely a high priority. That is great.

But what if it is only accurate at end of the day, or when warehouse staff bring scanner or paper to computer so that values can be updated? You are still open to costly errors.

If you updating shipments minutes or hours after goods are shipped, are you open to credit limit issues or misinforming customer. Are your ancillary systems (EDI, web store, etc) reflecting timely data.

If you are updating inventory receipts later in the day is your order desk telling customers that you do not have stock when you actually do have inventory. This could be lost sales. Are you not expediting PO’s so that you will not have out of stock situations.

Are you updating put away, picking and bin transfers when they happen? If not then you may have system and staff looking for goods that are no longer where they should be. Maybe you even missed a transfer and you have an outage situation in one bin and extra stock in another location.

Are you planning inventory based on yesterday’s values? For many companies who are trying to keep minimal inventory levels but high fill rates not having timely data may result in costly outages.

Accurate inventory is important to companies, but accurate data that is not timely is not as beneficial as it could be. Should you be using Radio Frequency scanners to update your data in real time?